Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Ranking Update & Fluctuations July 31st & August 1st
Seems like since Friday and throughout the weekend there may have been some update pushed out by Google to its search ranking algorithm. There is chatter and there are third-party tracking tools that seem to suggest there was some sort of update. Google has not confirmed any update, so this would be Google updating as normal to them. - Google Tests "Also In The News" Box Under Top Stories
Last week Google was testing "for context" sections within the top stories carousel. This week, Google is testing "also in the news" carousel boxes under the Top stories section in Google search. - Google Tests Categorized Sections For Search Results Again
We've seen this numerous times where Google would test sections by category of some sort of its search results. Well, over the past several days Google started those tests back up. Here are some screen shots shared with me on Twitter. Note, I may have missed some, feel free to ping me to add yours. - Web Stories Also Get More Exposure In Google Image Search
SEOs have been loving playing with Web Stories in Google Search for the extra exposure those get and potentially the higher click through rate. But did you know that these are also highlighted in Google's Image search results? - Microsoft Bing - The New Name Of Bing Search?
Over the weekend a lot of people who use Bing saw a new logo and new name for the Bing search engine. Now it says Microsoft Bing instead of just Bing and the logo is the Microsoft logo, not the Bing logo. - Google On When Comments Can Hurt Your Blog & When You Should Block Them
In the next episode of the Search Off The Record podcast from John Mueller, Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt of Google - they spoke about comments and how they may impact your blog. They also spoke about CMS platforms, how they got hired at Google and JavaScript including the Disqus issue. - Vlog #78: Jennifer Slegg On Google Quality Raters Guidelines & Algorithm Updates
Jennifer Slegg (@jenstar) has a long history in the SEO space but right now is pretty well known for her editorial work on the Google Quality Raters Guidelines and algorithm write ups. When Google launched AdSense... - Google Balloon Dress
Here is a photo Google shared on Instagram of Lavinia Solano's Google twisted balloon dress. Yes, she made a Google dress out of balloons. Google wrote on Instagram
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Alphabet Q2 2020 Revenues $38.3 billion, Down 2pct Y-o-Y, WebmasterWorld
- Google Search News July is live! 📰 In this segment, @JohnMu gives the latest scoop on... 🌐 Web Stories 📈 Upcoming ranking factor 👨🍳 Structured data updates ...and more! Watch the full video → ht, Google Webmasters on Twitter
- We have a very limited rotation in Zurich. I mostly came to pick up some random things I left behind, and because I'm curious what it's like. It's not very interesting in the office at the moment, so I'll probably st, John Mueller on Twitter
- August 2020 AdSense Earnings and Observations, WebmasterWorld
- New warnings for ValueTrack parameters in link attributes, Google Merchant Center Help
- So sad to see such a slow-down :(. We generally don't recommend particular scripts for that, but it sounds like it would be useful for someone to create a public comparison; it's something lots of sites have to u, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- How SEOs can create a free server log dashboard to better understand incoming traffic to your website
- How to craft a winning SEO proposal and avoid getting a silent ‘No’
- Will Google’s Ad Disclosure schema catch on?
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Take control of how data is used in Google Analytics, Google Blog
Industry & Business
- Google Is Missing Out on the Covid E-Commerce Revolution, Bloomberg
- Microsoft might be rebranding Bing as Microsoft Bing, complete with a new logo, OnMSFT
- A partnership with ADT for smarter home security, Google Blog
Links & Content Marketing
Mobile & Voice
SEO
- Crawling and Scraping with Python for Creating an Influencer Database, SEM Rush
- SEMrush Authority Score Explained, SEM Rush
- Top Mistakes People Make Producing Content for SEO Purposes, Search Metrics
- How to Create Content to Satisfy User Intent and Google Ranking Factors, Search Metrics
PPC
- Announcing v3.4 of the DCM/DFA Reporting and Trafficking API, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Google launches Chrome extension for ad transparency, Trust Token API, ZDNet
- 4 Opportunities for Dynamic Search Ads in B2B Marketing, Metric Theory
Search Features
Other Search
- An update on Exposure Notifications, Google Blog
